1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automotive communication systems, and, more particularly, to wireless automotive communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally wired communication is used in vehicular communication applications, while radio frequency (RF) based wireless communication is employed in some limited applications. Typically, automotive body domain applications such as seat control, window lift, mirror adjustment, and light control are distributed over the entire car and are interconnected via field bus communication systems. Current architectures have grown fast over the last decades as more and more convenience functions are introduced to the automotive industry. In order to connect the peripherals, a large number of cables may be necessary, which increases the complexity of the cable harness, increases the weight of the car, and increases the costs of the car. The increase in the number of cables may also lead to reliability problems in areas where the cable harness is mounted on moveable parts such as the side mirror, doors, seat, etc.
In order to avoid the above-described problems associated with hard-wired communication systems, it is known for radio frequency (RF) wireless communication to be employed between and within various systems within a vehicle, such as an automobile. Attaining reliable RF communication with good performance is problematic within a vehicle, however, because RF communication is deeply affected by fading due to multipath, and human and metallic obstructions inside the vehicle.
Recently, long wave (LW) magnetic signals based communication has been adopted at IEEE 1902.1 standard, also known as RuBee. Magnetic wave communication has an added advantage of passing through metals and liquids and thus can be used at locations which are hazardous/hard-to-wire or require precise localization (e.g., computation of the two-dimensional or three-dimensional position of each node relative to each other).
What is neither disclosed nor suggested in the art is a communication system for a vehicle that avoids the above-mentioned problems and disadvantages associated with known wired communication systems and with RF communication systems.